The present invention relates generally to an upholstered article and method of its manufacture and more specifically to the upholstering of an article having a rigid pan and a low profile.
Various upholstered articles, such as dental chairs and the like, are formed by placing a cushion material on a rigid backing or pan and then overlaying the pan and cushion with an upholstery material. Various difficulties arise when attempting to attach the upholstery material to a metal pan. For example, it is not possible to staple the material to the pan and riveting or the use of snaps is expensive. Furthermore, it is difficult to glue the upholstery material to the pan because the resiliency of the cushion tends to pull the material from the pan unless a constant pressure is applied during the time the glue is setting. One prior art method for overcoming these difficulties is to provide the edge of the pan with a reverse bend as shown for example in figure labeled Prior Art. The upholstery material was then folded around the edged form by this bend and simply clipped into place with a spring metal clip. The reverse bend in the pan, however, inherently increases the thickness of the upholstered article so that this technique does not lend itself to a manufactured article having a relatively thin profile. Also, with this method, some degree of manual skill is required to properly position the upholstery material on and over the pan.
The present invention provides an upholstered article and method which can be used to produce relatively thin profiled articles and greatly reduces the amount of manual skill necessary to produce such an article.